Posted on 02/13/2022 9:18:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The crowdfunding platform “GoFundMe” has sparked outrage in recent weeks after twice pausing donations to the Canadian Freedom Convoy before deciding they would shut the group’s donation page down altogether at the $10 million mark due to alleged “terms of service” violations.
Further angering supporters of the convoy, which is protesting oppressive Wuhan virus vaccine mandates, was GoFundMe’s initial decision to seize the donations and “work with organizers to send all remaining funds to credible and established charities chosen by the Freedom Convoy 2022 organizers and verified by GoFundMe.”
After a massive backlash, GoFundme backed down and said they’d be refunding donations directly to the donors.
Ivana Yelich said the order binding “any and all parties with possession or control over these donations” was issued Thursday afternoon. She cited a section of the Criminal Code that allows the attorney general to apply for a restraint order against any “offence-related property.”
BREAKING: The Ontario government says it has effectively frozen all donations made to the trucker convoy through GiveSendGo. It is now a criminal offence to have any "dealing" with money from donations through this platform.
pic.twitter.com/EhWWqe1V6J— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) February 10, 2022
In response, GiveSendGo tweeted that the Canadian government has “absolutely ZERO jurisdiction” over how they process donations and noted that they would continue to proceed as normal:
Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo. All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.
— GiveSendGo (@GiveSendGo) February 11, 2022
Based on GiveSendGo’s actions in response to the court order, as well as co-founder/CEO Jacob Wells’ statements regarding high-level attempts to shut down the fundraising page for the Freedom Convoy, this company gets it:
“Big Tech really has taken it upon themselves to be the arbiters of truth. And it’s a place that they were never intended to be, and it’s caused more damage than good,” Wells told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Monday. “We are now stepping into that place because there is a natural pushback from many people because America was founded on these ideas of freedom.”
“This is like the tip of the spear and what is coming in a tsunami of technology that is pushing back against this authoritarian style of social platforms where it’s like these people just think that they get to control the narrative,” he said. “It’s mind-blowing to me that they actually think that is the way that it ought to be, because in my perspective, it only breeds more distrust and more vitriol, more divide.”
“Literally, men and women have given up their lives, their security, they give up their safety and leave everything on the line to see freedom exist in this country and to walk on that to say, ‘Well, I’m going to take that from you.’ That’s such a mockery of those sacrifices,” Wells also told Fox News Digital.
All of that said, there could still be forced compliance depending on how GiveSendGo’s third-party payment processors respond:
Although GiveSendGo is refusing to comply with the court order, it may still be forced to comply. That’s because the order also applies to the website’s third-party payment processors.
In its website HTML code, GiveSendGo says it uses “WePay or Stripe” to process payments.
WePay is owned by JPMorgan and Chase. A source at JPMorgan and Chase tells CNN that WePay has not processed any payments for GiveSendGo for several months, and the two companies have no relationship.
CNN reached out to Stripe for comment and if [they] would comply with the order, but did not immediately receive a response.
It would appear that GiveSendGo isn’t waiting to find out. On Saturday, they posted an update giving clarification as to the status of donations and whether or not they were in fact “frozen”:
Please push this out there: The funds from the Freedom Convoy are not frozen contrary to what you might be hearing on the news. GiveSendGo is working with many different campaign organizers to find the most effective legal ways to continue funds flowing.
— GiveSendGo (@GiveSendGo) February 12, 2022
As always, stay tuned for further developments.
Give-send-go home page currently hacked (restored at the moment)
Wow! I just saw that on twitter (Jack Posobeic tweet).
There is some good analysis of the hack by computer savvy FReepers on that thread.
i want to see the list of GFM monies that were diverted to their “select” charities
I don’t care what anyone says. Globalist entities can freeze and steal money at will, any time, anywhere, and not be held accountable. All they need is a pretext of “safety.”
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. I think they can kill people at will, and get away with it. Look at all the people who have ended up dead. Beyond that, I can’t say what I really think. 👎😀
Agree. They shouldn’t get cocky over a Canadian court has no jurisdiction thing. If a Canadian court found you guilty of certain crimes you would be getting extradited from the US. There are many terror and money laudering cooperation treaties that can be used as a pretext.
There are many ways to 'say' something in HTML.
Is it supposed to be actual CODE or merely a COMMENT?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
